The widespread prophylactic usage of neonicotinoid insecticides has a clear impact on non-target organisms. However, the possible effects of long-term exposure on soil-dwelling organisms are still poorly understood especially for social insects with long-living queens. Here, we show that effects of chronic exposure to the neonicotinoid thiamethoxam on black garden ant colonies, Lasius niger, become visible before the second overwintering. Queens and workers differed in the residue-ratio of thiamethoxam to its metabolite clothianidin, suggesting that queens may have a superior detoxification system. Even though thiamethoxam did not affect queen mortality, neonicotinoid-exposed colonies showed a reduced number of workers and larvae indicating a trade-off between detoxification and fertility. Since colony size is a key for fitness, our data suggest long-term impacts of neonicotinoids on these organisms. This should be accounted for in future environmental and ecological risk assessments of neonicotinoid applications to prevent irreparable damages to ecosystems.

新烟碱类杀虫剂的广泛预防性使用对非目标生物体具有明显的影响。然而，长期暴露对土壤生物可能产生的影响仍然知之甚少，特别是对于拥有长寿蚁后的社会性昆虫。在这里，我们表明，长期接触新烟碱类噻虫嗪对黑花园蚁群Lasius niger的影响在第二次越冬之前就变得可见。蜂王和工蜂在噻虫嗪与其代谢物噻虫胺的残留比例上存在差异，这表明蜂王可能具有更优越的解毒系统。尽管噻虫嗪不会影响蜂王死亡率，但暴露于新烟碱类杀虫剂的蜂群显示工蜂和幼虫数量减少，表明解毒和生育力之间存在权衡。由于菌落大小是健康的关键，我们的数据表明新烟碱类杀虫剂对这些生物体有长期影响。在未来新烟碱类杀虫剂应用的环境和生态风险评估中应考虑到这一点，以防止对生态系统造成不可挽回的损害。